The Importance of Muscle Mass for Metabolic Health
Muscle has a primary function of creating movement throughout the body, but its additional functions are vast. We use muscles to perform daily tasks and we can benefit from its function within our metabolic and cardiovascular systems.
Let’s talk about the science and the actual metabolic health benefits having more muscle mass provides us with:
Glucose and insulin tend to work on a negative feedback mechanism to keep the body as close to baseline as possible. As glucose in the blood increases insulin will increase to promote the cells taking up glucose. This helps to keep the blood glucose level normal.
Muscles use more glucose, this creates less need for the hormone insulin. Over time your body becomes more efficient at using insulin (insulin sensitivity) and even at rest, a higher muscle mass requires more energy (glucose). Ultimately, this translates to the prevention and management of Diabetes and other metabolic conditions.
There are a few ways that this process occurs:
Strength training increases the amount of glucose transporters- these cells create a pathway for glucose to move from the blood into the cell. An increased amount of them allows for more glucose to move into the cells thus relying less on insulin.
Strength training promotes the release of myokines- these proteins deal with energy metabolism and insulin secretion. Myokines can assist with reducing inflammation in the body and the efficiency of the use of insulin your body does have.
Strength training improves the mitochondria in your body. Mitochondria are little powerhouse cells in the body that use glucose to make ATP- ATP is the energy currency of your cells. More muscles = more energy production overall.
These processes give us a deeper understanding of why muscle mass is so important in every stage of life and helps to prevent lifestyle-related diseases.
For more information on the above read through this article “Why Building Muscle Matters for Metabolic Health”.
Two strength training sessions a week have been shown to have beneficial effects on the body and are a great starting point for many people.
Strength training can take on many forms from bodyweight exercise to using gym equipment, resistance bands, and outdoor exercise. The important factors include determining your starting point, progressively overloading, and increasing total work over time. This could include sessions becoming more difficult through loading the body more or increasing your sessions per week.